October 24, 2019
By:
Local accountant Tom Janney has witnessed the growth of technology and major tax code changes. He will soon celebrate three decades of business in DeKalb County and, as he put it, “it’s been quite a ride.”
“We would love to have all friends, former employees, colleagues, and clients attend” the 30th anniversary of Janney and Associates on November 1 from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. at 297 West Broad Street, Smithville,” he said.
“We will have a barbeque lunch, which you need to register for because we have to give a head count. But we will also have some fun,” he continued. “We will have a wheel of fortune, I call it. We’ll spin for some prizes and other things to give away. It’s just a big thank you to the whole community because I am very grateful for what we have been able to do here.”
Janney moved to DeKalb County when he was a youngster after his “parents retired here mostly because of Center Hill Lake.”
“They came here and said that lake is beautiful and then we met Fowler Stanton (then the band director at DeKalb County High School.) He recruited me to play trombone in the band. He was quite the ambassador so we came here when I was in the 7th grade in about 1975. I loved it. I loved going to school at DCHS.”
After graduating high school, Janney attended the University of Tennessee where he and another DeKalb County resident, Richard Eller, performed in the famous marching band.
“I got to play in the inaugural parade that year when Ronald Reagan was elected President so it was really a great experience being in the band.”
Initially, Janney planned on studying architecture while at UT but “I changed majors somewhere along the way and decided that accounting is basically the language of business,” he said. “Out of all majors offered in the college of business I felt like accounting gave you the most options in business because if you can understand the accounting side of things a lot of the ball is moved down the field at that point and you’re really teed up to do some good work in business.”
After college graduation Janney returned to Smithville and joined an established CPA practice. “When I started doing tax returns in Mr. Ed Fuqua’s office we did all the returns in ink by hand as people sat and waited in front of you,” he recalled. “You talk about learning how to do a tax return. You did it that way and if you messed up you had to get the white-out which was a pain in the neck.”
Thankfully over time technology came to the forefront.
“Just amazing the technology that has happened over these 30 years,” he said. “I remember I was one of the first people in Smithville to get a fax machine. I remember somebody asking me, ‘who on earth in Smithville needs a fax machine. You can just walk across the street and hand them a piece of paper.’ That’s how technology works. At first you think that is the craziest idea I have ever heard and then the next thing you know everybody has a fax machine. Now fax machines are a little bit out-moded. Isn’t that funny?”
In October 1989, Janney opened his own business on Market Street in downtown Smithville. Later he moved across the street and “then I was blessed to be able to purchase the building where I am now on Broad and Short Mountain Streets.”
During his time in the business, Janney has witnessed major changes in the tax code.
“It just piles one thing on after another “I would love it if they would listen to me and other practitioners about how we could make this easier on taxpayers because it is a really tough thing to know all the rules,” he said. “Everybody wants to comply as much as they can but nobody likes paying taxes so you really have to be up on it to know how to save your clients some money. It makes for some fun and interesting conversations with people, I’ll put it like that.”
Also during that time, the business has grown to include clients from various parts of Middle Tennessee.
“There are nine of us on staff, including me,” he said. “I used to have a few locations outside of Smithville but I decided I was not meant to be a McDonalds chain. I decided to bring it all back in one house here because I have this wonderful building, but I do have clients from all over the Upper Cumberland and even Nashville now. It’s amazing what you can do with technology between staying connected on email and portals and all sorts of fun stuff like that.”
And, Janney said the business is still growing as he looks to the future.
“We are really going gangbusters and I am trying to think about the future, not that I am going anywhere anytime soon. We have a wide range of ages here and I don’t want to be in a situation where my clients aren’t able to move on with someone else at some point,” he explained. “I am trying to run a business that will live longer than I do.”
Janney makes it clear he is grateful for his success here.
“I want everyone to know I am truly grateful,” he said. “I am not from here originally. Nobody had to welcome me in. Nobody had to include me in this community. I am very grateful for that. I just want everyone to know that and that is what November 1 is all about. Please come out that day even if you (only) spend 10 minutes.”